Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – Public schools across Maryland start Tuesday. Students entering kindergarten and seventh grade need to be vaccinated to stay in school.
Kindergarteners need two doses of Varicella, which is the chicken pox vaccine. Seventh graders need to be vaccinated against Tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) and Meningococcal meningitis (MCV4).
Kids are supposed to have been vaccinated before the first day of school, but they have until sometime in October according to the spokesperson for the Montgomery County Department of Health Mary Anderson. Students who haven’t gotten their shots by then will not be allowed to attend classes until they roll up their sleeves.
Montgomery County continues to host free clinics
“Our clinics have been busy. It’s difficult to estimate how many kids are up to compliance already,” Anderson said.
Tuesday schools will get records of the most recent students to get vaccinated. Once those are counted, school officials will do a headcount of how many kids still need to be vaccinated from each school.
Anderson said many parents just forget to get their kids vaccinated during the busy summer months, or they procrastinate.
When the final deadline comes in October, Anderson said very few kids in the county wind up being kept out of school because they haven’t been vaccinated.
A full chart listing required vaccinations in Maryland is available here.
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